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Monday, August 09, 2010

Eurosclerosis - Open jobs are up while unemployment stays high

The aids to the nonworking have increased to the point that jobs are going unfilled while unemployment is at 9.5%. First the big numbers, then the stories.

Available jobs remain unfilled despite the high unemployment rate. See the graphic. NYTimes Economix blog Normally - always - these numbers move in opposite directions - unemployment goes up and available jobs goes down - but something changed. People can collect unemployment for two years - 99 weeks - and other benefits are for the unemployed or low income only. Each reward for not working causes some work seekers to stop looking. Or they keep looking, but the raise their requirements for pay or the type of work will they accept.

In Bloomington, Ill., machine shop Mechanical Devices can't find the workers it needs to handle a sharp jump in business. Job fairs run by airline Emirates attract fewer applicants in the U.S. than in other countries. Truck-stop operator Pilot Flying J says job postings don't elicit many more applicants than they did when the unemployment rate was below 5%.

Mark Whitehouse discusses why, despite the tough economy, some companies are having a difficult time filling job openings.

With a 9.5% jobless rate and some 15 million Americans looking for work, many employers are inundated with applicants. But a surprising number say they are getting an underwhelming response, and many are having trouble filling open positions.

"This is as bad now as at the height of business back in the 1990s," says Dan Cunningham, chief executive of the Long-Stanton Manufacturing Co., a maker of stamped-metal parts in West Chester, Ohio, that has been struggling to hire a few toolmakers. "It's bizarre. We are just not getting applicants."

Why do Congress and President 0 keep increasing the incentives to NOT work? How can they collect every higher taxes if the number people collecting benefits keeps rising, while those working keeps dropping?